China allocates 300 m yuan for Typhoon Lekima relief

BEIJING -- China allocated 300 million yuan ($42.73 million) of central fiscal funds Monday to help with rescue and relief work in three provinces affected by Typhoon Lekima.

A total of 150 million yuan was allocated to East China's Zhejiang province, following a 30-million-yuan relief fund previously given to the province, where Typhoon Lekima made landfall on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM).

By Monday morning, the death toll in Zhejiang Province had risen to 39 while nine others remained missing.

Lekima made a second landing Sunday on the coast of Qingdao in East China's Shandong province, leaving five people dead and seven missing as of Monday morning.

The MEM and the Ministry of Finance allocated another 100 million yuan to Shandong Province and 50 million yuan to neighboring Jiangsu province.

As of 4 pm Monday, the typhoon had left 8.97 million people impacted in the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Anhui, Fujian, Hebei, Liaoning and Jilin as well as the city of Shanghai, while some 1.71 million people were relocated, the ministry said.